My First Time

Editor's note: Few things in golf are better than the first time you break a scoring barrier. Every month, as inspiration, we print stories of such "First Times," from players both famous and not. This month we hear from Patty Berg, Brett Kanda and Amelia Twinem.

First ace

I'll never forget my first hole-in-one. How could I? I was the first woman ever to make a hole-in-one in a USGA championship.

I remember getting to the seventh hole at the 1959 U.S. Women's Open at Churchill Valley Country Club in Pittsburgh. I can't remember if it was the first or second round, but it was a tough hole with the tee box down low and the green up on a hill.

When I hit my shot, I thought it was carrying a long way and I didn't think I hit it all that great. But it disappeared over the hill and all of a sudden I heard a commotion. People were yelling and screaming. One of our friends was up there and yelled back to us that it was a hole-in-one. I was playing with Louise Suggs and didn't want to jump up and down and get all excited, but

I did jump up a little bit. I had a really big smile on my face. I didn't win the tournament (Mickey Wright beat Louise by two shots), but I was just so thrilled to finally get one, because I didn't have a hole-in-one for a long time before that. And I've only had a few since. But it's in the record book now and no one will forget about it.

Patty Berg
LPGA hall-of-famer and founding member

Going low

I remember the first time I ever broke 80. I was 11 years old and playing with a high school golf coach and a freshman from the University of Texas.

The high school coach was recruiting me to go to his school. That day, I told myself that I was going to try to keep up with the freshman from Texas.

By the time we went off, at 9 a.m., I was really nervous. I wanted to show both of them that I could play well. I started off hot and was two over par at the turn. On the back, I kept it up and finished four over. When we added up the scores, I saw that I had lost to the Longhorn by only two strokes. The coach was impressed, and wanted me at his school.

Brett Kanda
La Crescenta, Calif.

Milestone

I'm 15 years old and I play on the golf team at Lakewood Ranch High School in Bradenton, Fla. I'm definitely not the No. 1 golfer or anything, but I have some experience.

We were playing Bradenton Academy (where the Wongluekiet twins play) and St. Steven's (both very good teams), so I was nervous. And we were playing at River Wilderness, Bradenton Academy's home course, a course I had never played. I was actually scared of the course.

My goal for the golf season was to shoot a 45--bogey golf. I was nervous the whole time, but on the last hole, I made a par for the 45. That meant so much to me, doing it against our best opponents.